Transgressions [Paperback]

Sarah Dunant (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: ReganBooks (1998)
• ISBN-10: 1860493327
• ISBN-13: 978-1860493324
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

More About the Author

The author of the critically acclaimed Hannah Wolfe mystery series, Sarah Dunant is also well known in the United Kingdom for her work as a television host. She lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars not really sold on this one, July 12, 2000

By 

sallyann - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transgressions (Hardcover)

This book starts off very intriguing. Book translator Lizzie starts to notice CD's missing in her house. She thinks nothing of it as her ex boyfriend has a key to the house still. However, once he returns the key and the stereo continues to turn itself on and off and dishes move from the cupboards to the table, she begins to wonder if it's more of a poltergeist problem.

Until the night she wakes up and hears another person breathing in her bedroom.....

The story Lizzie is translating throughout the book is cheap, nasty and degrading, but I found it necessary as an explanation for Lizzie's behaviour. Despite the necessity, I still found the transcript quite boring, and it was only in retrospect that I began to believe Lizzie's emotions at the end of the story. "Mapping the Edge" is a much better book from this author.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining But Flawed, July 9, 2006

By 

A Discerning Reader (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transgressions (Paperback)

Dunant is a pleasant writer with real skills. She does a nice job with her characterization and her plotting--unfortunately, her imagination--well, that's the flaw.

As a member of modern society, I cannot stomach the key scene of the novel. In this scene, our heroine chooses, when confronted with a rapist, to pseudoseduce him instead. Yes, she convinces herself that she controlled an otherwise horrible experience, but Dunant's describing our heroine as aroused and emotionally not affected during or after the assault is pure stupidity. Trying to see it otherwise really doesn't work.

I don't have too much of a problem with the rest of the story, and there's a good climax. Again, however, her response to her would-be rapist at the end shows Dunant hasn't quite thought it through. She needs to read a few true-crime accounts of rape to clue her into the devastation that accompanies every moment during and after that trauma. The story is an interesting concept, but I would read other Dunant novels instead of Transgressions.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you don't mind a little kink, this is an exciting read, April 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Transgressions (Hardcover)

Four months ago, Lizzie Skvorecky split from her lover Tom. Since their nasty break-up, Lizzie has thrown herself into her work, translating novels into English. Her current work is a Czech police procedural that she originally found very distasteful, but the cheap porn has since hooked her.

Recently, someone has been entering Lizzie's London flat. Little things like a Van Morrison CD have either been stolen or moved elsewhere in the house. One particular night, Lizzie awakens to see a man holding a hammer sitting on her bed. She manages to seduce the man, but later on learns about the serial "hammer rapist". Though knowing the danger she might face, Lizzie decides to turn the tables and stalk the rapist.

TRANSGRESSIONS is a novel that should have been great but falls just short of the mark. Lizzie is an interesting character, whose motives may seem strange but are well developed and comprehensible. However, the poignant story line is hampered by the intrusions of translated extracts from the Czech novel and Lizzie's own porno additions. Apparently, the talented Sarah Dunant purposely added a poorer writing quality to these sections to keep the overall flavor and authenticity of the books premise. Skip those pages (unless the reader needs a cheap thrill) and peruse the main plot because that is an intriguing cat and mouse thriller.

Harriet Klausner